Recycling/Regrind

In a world where environmental impact has become a house-hold topic, manufacturing companies must take it upon themselves to help reduce their waste and the impact on our planet.  By utilizing regrind within the injection molding process, Dimatic has been eliminating scrap for decades.

Within the injection molding process, there is a potential for a significant amount of waste.  The two most common types of waste are through scrapped parts and molded runners.  Parts can be scrapped for many reasons, however, out of tolerance or warped parts are the most common cause.  Cold runner molds will have scrap in the form of runners, which are the left-over plastic “tunnels” by which the melted plastic is fed into the mold cavity.  Parts typically need to be trimmed from the runners.

Dimatic has been recycling this “scrapped” material by grinding down the scrap parts and runners.  Once these have been ground down to a pellet size, they are mixed in with virgin material in the proper ratios to continue making new parts.  By recycling the material in this manner, Dimatic is able to have virtually zero waste product in our process.

By understanding our responsibility to maintain resources, Dimatic has been running our injection molding operation virtually waste-free for years by recycling and regrinding our runners and scrapped parts.

Multi-Process Jobs

At Dimatic, we work on a vast array of project, many of which utilize more than one of our manufacturing capabilities.  Once such project was a timing belt pulley we recently built for a client.  This small, high precision part required work within our molding, tooling, and assembly departments. 

After designing and building the mold in-house, the first process in creating this part is a process called over-molding.  In this injection molding process, a single part is created from two or more materials.  The first material, in this case the aluminum hub, is partially covered during the injection molding process with the injected plastic.  For this pulley, an aluminum hub is placed into the mold before a cycle is ran.  After the cycle, in which a glass-filled polycarbonate fills the remaining cavity within the mold, a single part falls out which is the combination of the plastic and aluminum.

Following molding, the part is taken into our assembly area where it is drilled and tapped in order to add set-screws to the part.

Finally, the part goes through a process called “Sonic Welding”.  This is a process, commonly used for welding together plastics, which uses high-frequency mechanical motion to generate heat to join together two thermoplastics.   This process forms a molecular bond between parts.  In regards to the pulley, sonic welding is done to weld the flange onto the body of the pulley and finish the part.

By having the capabilities to complete all of these steps in-house, we were able to save our client money and time while providing them with high quality parts to fit their needs. Dimatic’s versatility and diverse abilities met the challenge of this project and provided a high-quality part to its client.

Molded Plastic Spiral

Dimatic was requested to help design and produce plastic parts of a very unique shape by a customer.  The part involves a spiral design with holes through the part which is used in a mixing operation.  It was to be molded from a food grade plastic in several colors.  After considering the customer’s requirements and product application, a final part was designed using Dimatic’s Pro-Engineer* solid modeling software to maximize the efficiency of the part’s mixing capability as well as to produce a part that is consistently injection moldable.    The part desgin is shown here:

Dimatic combined the use of 3-D printed samples, along with viewing 3-D models to work with the customer to design the finished part.  Dimatic then designed and built a two cavity mold for the job.  The HDPE part’s intricate shape requires mechanical cams to core out the center section and complete match-offs on the contoured walls.   Using the 3-d design database and extensive use of CNC (Computer numerically controlled) Milling, EDM (Electrical discharge machining) and Wire EDM technologies, Dimatic’s designers and toolmakers made the product happen.  The mold was built with top quality materials and standards and some of the electrodes and components are shown here:

Our molding production department produces the parts in many colors and completes the product through a packaging operation which includes a shrink wrapped clear tube.  See sample parts below:

Through excellent communication with the customer on the part’s requirements and the expert use of high-tech design tools, Dimatic met the challenge of this project and brought quality through the entire process including end user packaging.  Dimatic’s design, tooling and production team has scored again!